Follow along as I fumble my way through planning a move from the U.S. to France, and eventually figure out how to survive overseas for 10 months.

28 June 2006

France 3, Spain 1, Amy -1

Last night turned out to be a lot more eventful than I ever expected it to be! If you are following the World Cup, you know that France beat Spain last night. Rachel and I watched the end on TV, mainly because the city started to go nuts after the goal that put France up 2-1. So, we saw the third goal and all of the celebrations at the end of the game on TV. Of course, this was nothing compared to what was to follow...

Within minutes of the end of the game, the streets were absolutely flooded with drunken revelry. Car horns were honking non-stop; people draped in the French flag were running out into the middle of the streets; neighbors across the street from us were hanging off their balconies in celebration. I got my camera out and started videoing the TV and the scenes out our window, which only got more frenzied as the minutes ticked by. Finally, we decided that we needed to see things close up, so we headed downstairs to join in the festivities.

Rachel and I ended up down at Porte d'Orleans with a horde of fans who had complete disregard for their own safety (much to our amusement). Traffic moved at a crawl, mostly because masses of happy soccer fans would leap in front of cars and scream at the top of their lungs while waving the French flag or some other form of soccer-related paraphernalia. The best part is that they were also leaping in front of my camera and going nuts, so the videos were absolutely hilarious. Of course, the people in cars were just as crazy -- we saw a guy set off a road flare from his window while driving down Général Leclerc!

Unfortunately, the inevitable happened. While I was holding my camera up to capture the action, someone took the opportunity to rip it out of my hand and take off. Yup, my camera got stolen! AGAIN!

[This comment requires a side story for those of you who don't know the saga of our digital camera. We bought it two years ago because it was on sale for a really reasonable price. We took it to France with us, where it was pickpocketed from us on a tram in Montpellier. Fortunately, our homeowner's insurance covered all but the $100 deductable, and I found the same camera on eBay for $100 less than we originally paid. So, no harm, no foul. Then, I took the camera with us to Reno when we visited our friends Ryan and Lisa. On this trip, I managed to break the view screen on the back, which cost us a little bit more than $200 to repair. Still, we decided it was worth it because it was still cheaper than buying a new camera with comparable features. And now, the camera is gone for good once again! Given the history of this stupid camera, I think it was just meant to be. There's no way it could have just broken on us - something dramatic HAD to happen so that the story was complete.]

The only real bummer for me is that I lost the great videos I shot last night. Sure, I hate to lose my camera and the memory card inside it, but that can always be replaced. We tried desperately to get our web cam to shoot video from my apartment window, but there was some kind of glitch in the software and we couldn't get it to work. (Thanks to MoMom for trying to help!) So, I have no videos or pictures to share with you, sadly.

But, I will always have the memory of witnessing all of the following things from outside my window:

Two men (on separate occasions) wandering through the middle of Avenue du Général Leclerc with their pants around their ankles. One had on boxers ... the other gave us a bright and shiny view of his arse.

One man so drunk that he jumped out of the car he was riding in and started beating on its roof so hard that he was putting dents into it. This was followed shortly by a pedestrian who walked up to him and apparently explained that what he was doing wasn't such a good idea.

Four men dancing on the roof of an RV as it slowly drove down Général Leclerc. (Yes, I'm quite sure that it was as bad of an idea as it sounds.)

Several near accidents between cars and crazed fans that just ran out into the middle of the intersection with Boulevard Brune/Boulevard Jourdan and Général Leclerc.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things (Rachel made a list, which I unfortunately can't find right now). We finally gave up and went to bed after two solid hours of celebrations outside my window. I'm not sure how much longer the festivities went on, but there were definitely still car horns honking as I drifted off to sleep after 1 am.